Monday 11/17/08

Hi Everyone!
It was a much busier day than I expected and the internet is still down in our office on Coast Village Road :( so my apologies for the delay in updating you.

Tea Fire Update

According to the City here's the latest:
Current Status. The TEA Fire started at 05:45 p.m. on November 13, at Coyote and East Mountain Drive. The Fire is 95% contained. 210 homes destroyed - 130 in the City and 80 in the County, 9 homes damaged. Damage assessment continues. 1300 firefighters on scene. 319 homes still under evacuation. 1940 acres have burned and 25 people have been injured. Estimated firefighting cost to date $4,600,000.

The City Webiste Page has some updated information on the fire:
http://www.santabarbaraca.gov/

A complete list of the homes that burned which may not be a 100% accurate is found here:
http://www.countyofsb.org/uploadedFiles/ceo/initial_strucutre_loss_11-14-08(1).pdf

This morning at our meeting we spoke about several important items regarding the fire. The big quesiton was:

How will it affect the Santa Barbara Real Estate Market?

My personal opinion is that we will see short term stall in the market. We may see a delay in closings as the insurance companies will want to know that the fire is out or under 100% containment before granting any new policies.
Perhaps after 2 -3 months we may see a positive stir in our local economy as architects, contractors, city officials, realtors, etc. are called in to conduct their specific jobs.

There is no aruguement that this fire is a temporary setback for our real estate market. We have continued to see prices drop and less and less people qualify for loans. There was hope that we had reached a bottom last month as we had seemed to reach the high of the notice of defaults in Santa Barbara. I was listening to KNX 1070 and the talk show host thought the same as well, but soon enough after discussion, the conclusion was made that since the banks are now "helping" the notice of defaults are just being delayed. I am sure this fire may scare some buyers temporarily but our unique Pacific Ocean and Channel Island views have a way of erasing memories and soothing the soul and my hope is that it will ultimately stimulate the local economy.

I am working on getting a list of things to have prepared in case of fire or earthquake emergency. I was lucky enough to have one set up by my dad and I want to share some of things I learned from those who lost their house.

Be in touch soon,

Jennifer